CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN Transcript
JEFF JARVIS, JOURNALIST: Anyone who's a witness to news can be a reporter, because anyone and everyone has access to the press, to the Internet. Everyone is a Wolf Blitzer in sheep's clothing.
KURTZ: Jordan was already controversial for writing in "The New York Times" two years ago that CNN had not reported some of Saddam Hussein's abuses to protect its Iraqi employees.
(on camera): Why does CNN, or CBS, which came under cyberspace fire for Dan Rather's discredited story on President Bush, care what bloggers say? These online commentators can generate enough noise that they push a story into the press or circumvent the mainstream media entirely by communicating directly with computer users. The people who own the printing presses and television towers are no longer the gatekeepers of what is news.
(voice-over): But for all its fact-checking prowess, the Internet can also be a place of ugly rumors, such as the unsubstantiated allegations on the conservative site FreeRepublic.com that Baltimore's Democratic mayor, Martin O'Malley, was having an extramarital affair.
MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: These are despicable lies. These are falsehoods. KURTZ: Falsehoods that, it turned out, were spread by a longtime aide to Maryland's Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich. When "The Washington Post" revealed the postings, Ehrlich fired the aide. Sometimes, the much-maligned media can also act as a check on the blogosphere.
Howard Kurtz, CNN, Washington.
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So FR was *only* mentioned as a way of discrediting it ...hmmmm.